Originally a lawyer and coffee planter in the interior of São Paulo state, Monteiro Lobato wrote an unpretentious letter to a São Paulo newspaper, describing the droughts and brushfires in the interior. The editor asked for more articles and Lobato replied with the sketches and short stories, later collected in his book Urupês (1918; “Mushrooms”). In these he introduced the character Jeca Tatu (“Joe Armadillo”), who became the symbol of the Brazilian backlander. “Poor Jeca Tatu,” Lobato comments. “You are so handsome in novels and so ugly in real life! You don’t talk; you don’t sing; you don’t love.”

A man of action, Monteiro Lobato moved to São Paulo, founded the literary review Revista do Brasil and a publishing house, and gathered around him a circle of new literary talents. Critical and rebellious, he was in and out of prison and exile many times. He also wrote children’s books enjoyed equally well by adults.